Mascarpone coffee tarts for a 3rd birthday

Three years old and counting...this time, I was more than ready when the blog anniversary birthday rolled around and I actually had a recipe in mind. All it needed was execution.

Ok, put up your hand if you like tarts...if you like chocolate... if you like coffee. Then you're gonna love this recipe. The inspiration for these tarts came about a couple of months ago when I was trying out new recipes for a dessert workshop that involved pastry. Strangely, my best ideas come when I'm procrastinating. Instead of getting on with the job at hand, I started dreaming of... tiramisu in a martini glass, tiramisu in a shot glass... tiramisu... I looked down at the little tart shell in my hand and the sheer genius of it almost knocked me over. Almost!

Some nice ideas have to go out straight of the window - how can it be tiramisu  if there are no savoiardi biscuits. Fine then, it would have the ingredients and flavour of tiramisu, but it wouldn't be tiramisu - just a poseur. On second thoughts, it could be a kind of petit fours.

After some tweaking of a sweet pastry recipe I often use, I found I didn't even have to roll it out and cut it. On second thoughts, the next time I make these tarts, I definitely will roll out it out as I like my pastry to be very thin - more filling goes in, you see... and they'll look even more dainty.
 

The filling was a breeze to assemble. These tarts can be made and filled a couple of days in advance without fear of the pastry going soggy. How?? A secret ingredient, perhaps... of course, the answer is always chocolate.

In a nutshell, bake the tart shells and leave them to cool. Make the cheese and coffee cream and pipe away. Oh, I didn't tell you what to do with the chocolate, right?

But in the end, you're going to love the crisp chocolaty sweet base of the tart that shatters so effortlessly when you take a bite, followed by the lick of the coffee flavoured cream. You will be forgiven for getting blobs of cream stuck to the tip of your nose - there's really no dainty way to eat these. 


Here's the recipe:


Mascarpone coffee tarts

Ingredients for tart shells
150 gm flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
75 gm cold, cubed butter
3 tsps fine sugar
1 egg yolk, beaten (you may need some of the white)

Method
Sift together flour and salt. Stir in the sugar.
Rub the butter into the flour mix, add in the yolk and form into a dough. (If the dough is dry, add in some of the white as well.)
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for about half an hour.
Either roll out the dough and cut into 12 discs or divide the dough into 12 balls and press into the bases and up the sides of fluted mini tart tins (2" diameter).
Dock the base with a fork (goodness... it rhymes!!), bake at 180°C for about 12-15 minutes till they turn a light gold colour. 
Remove the tins from the oven and unmould the pastry. Leave them on a wire rack to cool.

Filling
50 mls water
35 gm sugar
2.5 teaspoons espresso coffee powder 
100 gm good quality mascarpone cheese at room temperature
100 gm whipped sweet cream
1 tablespoon Amaretto - optional
1 tablespoon Kahlua or Baileys Irish Cream- optional

100 gm dark chocolate, melted
Cocoa powder for dusting
Strawberries

Method
Brush the inside of each tart shell with some of the melted chocolate.
Put the water and sugar into a small saucepan, bring it to the boil. 
Turn off the heat, stir in the espresso powder, mix to dissolve.
When it cools, add in the liqueurs, if using.
Whip the mascarpone till smooth, blend in the coffee syrup.
Fold in the cream.
Fill a piping bag with a large star nozzle and pipe the coffee cream into the shells.
Put the remaining melted chocolate into a a piping bag, pipe lines of chocolate over the filling.
Chill the tarts in the fridge. 
When you're ready to serve them, place a halved strawberry over each tart and dust a little cocoa powder over the top. 
Get out your prettiest plate, arrange the tarts on it and serve. 

Dear dear readers, baketales is still a toddler and you've been my best supporters. Thank you for visiting, leaving comments and what I cherish most, writing in to say that you have tried out my recipes or gone to places I've reviewed or even love my photographs (I know who to thank for this). Thank you for being my cheering squad; looking forward to more of your mails and comments.